Philadelphia Flyers’ head coach John Tortorella has been suspended two games for an incident with officials during their Saturday match against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Fourth Period’s Anthony Di Marco was the first to report the suspension.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Tortorella, now in his second season with the Flyers, would also be suspended $50,000.
The incident occurred in the first period of the game on Saturday. The Flyers were down 4-0 and Tortorella expressed his frustration with referee Wes McCauley. After repeated warnings, McCauley announced that Tortorella was awarded a bench minor for unsportsmanlike conduct and a game misconduct.
What received the most attention from both fans and league officials was that Tortorella stayed on the bench for well over a minute after McCauley announced the ejection. The Flyers’ bench boss continued yelling at officials, and it wasn’t until all the officials skated to the bench and told Tortorella to leave the ice.
The Flyers would end up losing 7-0 to the Lightning. What added to the narrative of the evening was that the home team was celebrating the 20th anniversary the 2004 Tampa Bay Lightning Stanley Cup championship team, which Tortorella was the head coach of.
The Flyers are 33-24-8 with 74 points, third in the Metropolitan Division. With 17 games left in the season, it appears that a Philadelphia team that many pegged to be a rebuilding squad will make the post-season for the first time since 2019-20.
Now in his 22nd season of being a head coach, the two-time Jack Adams Award-winning is tied with Darryl Sutter for ninth on the all-time NHL coaching wins list with 737. Tortorella has coached for the Flyers, Lightning, New York Rangers, Vancouver Canucks and Columbus Blue Jackets.
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